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The writer said she had had experiences with police in other states when she was in the middle of a mental health crisis — and she knew what worked for her and what didn't.

I was curious about the experiences of people in our community and got in contact with Richard Bauer, who recently moved from Appleton to Green Bay.

Today he's doing a lot better and hasn't had a major depressive episode in more than a year. He hasn't been suicidal in several years, he said.

But that wasn't always the case.

Bauer said the crisis intervention training, which helps officers de-escalate situations, significantly changed the dynamic of his interaction with police when he was suffering from depression. He thinks a friend of his called the police to intervene, bringing Appleton officers to his home about five years ago.

He said the CIT officer, instead of coming into his home and taking him away against his will, stayed with him for six hours and asked him questions, trying to understand where he was coming from. The officer let him have a cigarette outside, he said, and stood up for him when someone else complained about him smoking.

"I felt like a human being and I felt like I was going to have some choice in what was going to happen to me," he said.

That sense of control in the midst of a dark moment gave him hope that things would get better.

He eventually went to the hospital with the officer, he said. Bauer remembered that the officer stayed with him at the hospital as he was admitted.

A previous interaction with officers from another agency had left him hesitant to call for help in the future. He said in that situation, officers came to his home and took him out in handcuffs, which got the rumor mill going in the community where he was living at the time.

"It's pretty humiliating to be taken out of your home in handcuffs," he said.

The CIT officer explained to him that he would have to wear handcuffs as part of department policy. But he handcuffed Bauer in front and let him put a jacket over the handcuffs, obscuring them from prying eyes.

"It was a little more subtle," he said. "I left with a little more dignity."